September 10, 2012

New Charcoal Step by Step

It's been refreshing to use my rare free time to get back to charcoal drawing during the last couple of months. This drawing is compressed charcoal on rives paper and is roughly life size. It was completed in about an hour and a half.

The symmetry of the eyes is quite noticeable off, but that's not to say the gentleman in the drawing is symmetrical!It doesn't show as much in the final rendering, and as with all your charcoal work, this is absolutely awesome. Always inspirational to visit your blog. I can see that every stroke of charcoal is carefully conceived like John Sargent with his brushstrokes. That level of 'simplicity' is a skill.

And yes the model has noticeably asymmetry in his face. The actual drawing problem however, was the shadow cast from the right eye onto the nose, it flattened the form too much and left the eye floating without a proper relationship to the nose, I couldn't resist a touch up so it's a little better now.